Wagga City Council called upon to upgrade road safety measures around Estella

After councillors voted down a controversial move to change the corner of Old Narrandera Road and Pine Gully Road from a stop sign to a give way sign, residents have come forward saying the area needs more than just signs.

Sajan Kuriakose, a shift-worker who lives at Estella Rise, said the area was far too dark at night and need lighting urgently.

“It’s really dangerous when you’re working at night,” Mr Kuriakose said. “You can’t see where the intersection is. We’re a growing suburb, we pay our rates, we need this.”

According to the Centre for Road Safety, there were nine crashes on Pine Gully Road between 2012 and 2016 alone, resulting in one person’s death and six people being injured, including three with serious injuries.

But despite decades of development in the area, many of the roads remained largely unchanged according to councillor Paul Funnell, who said there were now thousands of people using these “country roads” every day.

“I can’t remember those roads around there ever being upgraded,” Cr Funnell said. “But you’ll have more than 6000 blocks out there in the future.

“There are plans in place for things like Farrer Road – that’s a nightmare – but they should have been done before this point.”

Truck driver Brett Parr echoed calls for safety improvements and extra lighting. 

“You can’t see a thing at night, you certainly can’t see the stop line,” Mr Parr said. “This is a safety issue, you want to make sure you come home to your family safe every day. Council should be onto it so people can see where they need to stop, from a safety perspective we need lights there.”

Councillor Funnell said the problem facing council was how to fix the traffic problems after so many years.

“I’ve seen a hell of a lot of near misses and vehicles have to head bush to avoid a crash,” he said.

“There’s been poor planning vision and now how do we fix it? I don’t think we can solve it properly now, it’s the biggest growth area in Wagga and it’s just diabolical.”

When asked if he would take up Mr Kuriakose’s idea of improved lighting at the Pine Gully Road intersection, Cr Funnell said he would dig the holes to install the lights himself if necessary.